Users passwords not working due to MachineKey IIS6 after migrating to IIS7 on a new server

Question

We had to migrate urgently from a Windows 2003 + IIS6 to a new Windows 2008 + IIS7

I have a couple of websites with the ASP.NET Membership Database with Hashed Passwords, on the new server users that were not being used work fine but users who recently used it cannot login (error is Invalid Password) Even after setting a new password same happens.

I can read the problem is with the MachineKey (it was not setup so it was using the comptuter MachineKey) I'm trying to set the IIS7 machinekey to the same as before so can get the users to work again.

We have over 500 users we dont know their passwords or anything so we cannot recreate them.

Any ideas on Where could I find the old MachineKey from the previous server (win 2003)?

Regards,

George

Answer 1

Set this thing into your web.config for your application

<system.web>
    <machineKey  
    validationKey="<blah>"           
    decryptionKey="<blah>"
    validation="SHA1"
    decryption="AES"
    />

You need to use the old machine key to make it work.

Maybe you can try this to find out the machine key

http://aspnetresources.com/blog/how_to_read_auto_generated_machinekey